Author's Note
I do not own the Hunger Games. A big thank you to everyone for all the reviews so far.
They saw the Capitol long before they arrived, a mass of tall, shining buildings and lights. He touched her shoulder. "Look."
She looked and wrinkled her nose.
The door rolled open and St Clarance's podgy figure arrived. "Ah, there you two are. Come along, come along, we'll be arriving soon."
Neither of them moved.
St Clarance waved his fat arms. "Come along, come along!"
He sighed and got to his feet. He'd played the 'go here, do this' game enough times to feel like a trained dog. They ought to be able to run, roam, hunt.
They followed St Clarance through to the first carriage. Meadow and Holden were lounging on one of the sofas. Through the window, the two of them could see the shining buildings of the Capitol looming up ahead of them.
"I hope you're ready for this." Holden said.
The train shot past the first of the buildings, which looked like a warehouse. Another whizzed past, and another, and then the train dipped to be swallowed by a tunnel.
"Oh, excellent. This is a wonderful view," Hyperion commented.
St Clarance glared at him.
The train began to slow, finally coming to a halt at a large, gleaming white station. A crowd of people had gathered there, clamouring to get a glimpse at the window. Luciente slipped her hand into Hyperion's.
"You two are so sweet!" cooed St Clarance.
Hyperion scowled and pulled Luciente away from the window.
St Clarance led them to the train's main doors, and Meadow and Holden took up places behind them.
The doors swooshed open. The cheering was nearly deafening. Camera flashes lit up the air. St Clarance grabbed their arms, dragging them out into the fray. Barriers held the crowds away from their path, but they were pressed against them, reaching through them, grabbing at their arms and hair and clothes.
And they called them animals.
Luciente stuck close to Hyperion as they hurried to the doors on the other side of the platform. One woman managed to grab her arm. She yanked it away, snarling, and the two walked a little faster.
Behind them, their train took off with a rumbling roar, and there was another whoosh as another pulled in.
It felt like a lifetime before the doors slammed closed behind them. Their ears rang, and they could still hear the screaming behind them.
The doors led to a long, silver sided tunnel. At the other end they could see what looked like the tributes from Nine stood at a desk.
Behind them, the doors swooshed open and closed again.
They were waved past as their little group arrived.
"District Ten, Holly and Lewis Riley," St Clarance squeaked. The purple haired woman at the desk tapped her fingers against the screen in front of her.
"That's Hyperion and Luciente Ripley, correct?"
St Clarance waved his hand. "Yes, yes, whatever."
"Come along Tamika, do keep up," came a voice from somewhere behind them.
"Well maybe if you weren't walking like you thought the world was ending."
Two women appeared from a door behind the desk and swept the two of them away down the corridor. Hyperion twisted round to catch one last look at Luciente as they were ushered down separate hallways.
Luciente never looked back.
He was steered into a small metal room marked with the words 'DISTRICT TEN MALE,' where he was met with four more Capitolites, all with garishly coloured skin and hair. They skittered around him nervously as though he might bite.
Hyperion thought he just might.
At last one of them squeaked for him to take his clothes off. He stripped and they 'ooh'ed over his physique.
Hyperion was very tempted to snap his teeth, but decided it might be more trouble than it was worth.
The four Capitolites spent an inordinate amount of time fussing over him, pushing him under an unbearably hot shower and then into a bathtub of water, scrubbing him red raw and then insisting he took another shower.
Go here, do that, good dog.
Dogs could bite, and he was tempted.
They washed his dark hair, squeaking something about dirt and dust, and then washed it again, and then a third time.
He bared his teeth when they tried to approach him again with the sponge, and smacked it from the bitch's hands.
"That's enough."
"Oh, but we're not-"
"You're done."
"I say-"
He snarled like Luciente liked to do, deep and violent. "I said you're done."
One of them scurried off and returned with a tall, thin, purple haired man.
"You must be Hyperion."
Excellent deduction skills there.
"I am Valentino," he announced with a flourish. When Hyperion didn't respond, he continued. "I will be your stylist. I am told you refuse the prepping?"
"I'm done."
He looked him over with a critical eye, but evidently decided not to argue with the boy more than twice his size.
"Fine. Follow me."
Hyperion followed him through another door into a much more spacious room with a raised stage in the centre. A mannequin stood behind it.
"Now, I had originally wanted to dress the male from your District as a cowboy, to portray the essence of Ten."
Hyperion wondered if he had ever actually been to Ten.
"But after seeing you and your sister chosen, I changed my mind to something more⦠loyal and familial." He waved his hand at the mannequin.
Hyperion eyed it. "A coyote?"
Valentino smacked him round the head with a tape measure. "A wolf!"
It looked like a coyote.
